Brian Rensford's pulpit-pounding page

Benny has discovered my e-address and takes the time to regularly write to me offering free lunches and priority seating next time he comes to Sydney to bring his very own special and unique brand of “revival”…. I am flattered.... and amazed that Benny (and his busy-busy office gnomes) would really know who I am or how important I am to the unfolding purposes of God in Sydney....

And Bobbie has been writing to me too (behind Brian's back, I presume) to tell me she loves me and I am a “gorgeous gal” (a bit of gender confusion doesn’t deter me). And now her daughter has also discovered me, and desperately wants me to attend something called “Colour my Undies” so we can have lots of chick-flick fun together. I am not sure what that is, but it sounds really exciting to an old fogy like me who rarely gets this kind of email from any female of any age….

And of course, there’s absolutely no mention of money matters in any of these sincere emails from Benny, Bobbie, or what’s-her-name…. Watch this space....

I was watching last Thursday night’s Sydney ABC news (4/12/08) when the newsreader very seriously announced the formation of a new over-arching unified security department and consolidating security chief for Australia, to combat the ongoing terrorist threat. And it was backgrounded with footage of balaclava-masked anti-terrorist "persons" abseiling down from a Blackhawk in the city.

Hang on! This was déjà vu to the extreme! It was almost word-for-word out of an episode of the irony comedy series, The Hollowmen, a few months ago! I couldn’t believe the similarities! Even the wording! Marvellous theatre! Even Rob Sitch's request to background abseiling anti-terrorist soldiers was replicated.

Ok, ok... the punchline in the comedy show was that there was an election coming up in three months time and the PM wanted to look like he was doing something. And of course, that kind of thing has never happened in Australia , has it????

Here's an example of the written media reports….. and yes, climate change is now lined up alongside terrorist threat…. spare me....

ABC synopsis 5/12/08 - Former prime minister John Howard's strategy for handling the Tampa crisis and the terrorist attacks of September 11 was to take firm ownership of the national security agenda. His strength on terrorism and border control was one of the defining aspects of his leadership. But yesterday, Kevin Rudd issued his first statement on national security to the parliament, announcing the appointment of a new national security adviser, who will have responsibility for the budget of all national security agencies, and the inclusion of climate change and energy security into national security policy.

What really is "Faith" in the NT? How did Jesus define it? And how can we DO IT?

This three-part series began life as an attempt to deal with endemic unbelief in our own lives and church. Just what is it that causes the Western Church so often to slide towards a lifestyle where much is said, but not much happens, in our own existential life experience of the supernatural God. We began this by leaning heavily on the definition of faith by Malina & Rohrbaugh in their very helpful book, Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels. Much of this series is anecdotal, drawing on the many verifiable God-came-in experiences we and others have been exposed to over many years. Encounters that increase your faith! The response we had to this series has been quite remarkable and ongoing. May it increase your level of "faith in action" too! TRUE BIBLICAL FAITH SERIES.

We have commented in considerable depth on this "lid-blowing" exercise by Chris Masters on our "Under the Microscope" resource section. Several of our friends in ministry prayerfully decided to participate (for the first time) after Helen Pomeroy (a lady from Vic Hall's church - Brisbane Christian Fellowship - not known to us, as she postdates our eviction in 1980) doggedly brought the story of marriage breakups, and excessive leadership interference in the personal lives of congregants to the attention of the media.

You don't make friends doing this! So why comment at all? Well, just maybe someone will read this material and through it find a measure of release from past guilt, hurt, bitterness, and errors in their belief system that opened the door for the domination to lock on. Not only for damage done, but, as in my (Brian's) case for contribution to the damage caused. There's been a lot of sidestepping of what several of me 'n' me mates see as critical factors in getting on with your life.

Whole streams of the church are departing from sound orthodox Christianity more and more as Dominionist theology takes over. They are trying to bring Revelation 11:15 into this age, and they are very, very wrong! I have seen the effect in Zimbabwe of this "over-realised eschatology" (to use Fee's terminology) where they fasted for 40 days across the nation to try to get rid of Mugabe and it didn't happen. It led to what is usually called a "Great Disappointment" (a la the birth of the SDA's in the 1840's). And that's what this will do too. It opens the way for a later turning away from the Living God because He didn't answer…. "God didn't come through...."

Brian Pickering has been leading the Australian branch of this prayer movement for some 15 years, and our country has gotten worse - not even minutely better for all the collective intercession. The early apostles never once prayed for the Roman Empire, but urged Christians to pray for their leaders including secular (1 Tim 2:1-4), but not for the system. They were emphatic that the "systems" (stoicheia that together constitute the cosmos of 1 John 5:19) will remain under the control of the evil one until Christ returns in glory, and that includes Australia. Not once in 2000 years has there ever been a "nation" turn to God. Not once, anywhere, ever. Romans 1:1-5 has the correct balance.

The Australian Intercession movement loves to get off on a very incorrect rewrite of de Quiroz's landing on Vanuatu 400 years ago, during which (in full-blown Southern European Catholic terminology) he proclaimed he had discovered the "Great Southland of the Holy Spirit". He hadn't. And it wasn't. And the stories that currently abound by energetically incorrect teachers (now including Danny Nalliah, of the false prophetic words for the now in-opposition Liberal Party) love to state that this continent is going to see one last great end-time revival real-soon-now that will usher in the last great global revival and Second Coming... Come on! Travel! Listen! Half the nations I have visited over the past 30 years also have a variant of this porky prophetic word... That other well-known American prophetic intercessor (a General of Intercession no less), Cindy Jacobs has used a similar prophecy in New Zealand, Guatemala, and Zimbabwe! And they are just the ones I have discovered!

The Dominionists abuse our English word, "nations" by aligning it with political entities (of which there are currently 223 globally), whereas the NT uses it to describe people groups (of which there are 22,000 globally - according to Don Richardson in his Great Commission book, Eternity in their Hearts). The correct emphasis is seen in Romans 1:5 "Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith." God is looking for people from every "ethne" to bring together into the only nation He is really concerned about, the Church! The Body of Christ!

Let's continue to "fish" many individuals out from under the control of the stoicheia, and see them delivered into the Kingdom of God's dear Son!

The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization. Neither a market economy, nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life. If a nation’s spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure, or by industrial development. A tree with a rotten core cannot stand. - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

We have become increasingly concerned about the invasion of the lives of the young by the global corporate branding culture - the new world where we are not viewed as citizens in a society with rights, but as consumers in an economy with purchasing power! Go to the our Resources webpage for a breakup of some challenging, helpful articles. This is the real Big Brother that you should be concerned about!

Spiritually Abusive Leadership (and its contrast with godly NT-style Leadership)

A visit by Ken Blue to a church in Queensland, where a friend serves on the pastoral staff, precipitated renewed vigour in our circles on the subject of what makes for abusive churches and leaders. Several extracts from Blue's material are listed under our Resources page's Feature section... The section on "Titles, and Honorifics" (which we humbly renamed, "just call me Rev. Dr. Pastor....") is so apt for Pentecostals today as we regress to the Middle Ages, and do our best to outdo the Catholics!

A highlight of our 2003 visit to Aotearoa (NZ) was dropping by the Anglican church on the shore of Lake Rotorua. When I as a teenager, the Church etched a "Maori Christ" on the large window overlooking the Lake. The Pakehas (whites) went ballistic! Why? Because from where you sit inside the building, Jesus is depicted walking on the water dressed as a Maori rangitira (chief). And, of course, they were used to Him being depicted like a ponce, European-featured, spaced out, faded rock star (I call this the Kris Kristofferson image of Christ!). I'm taking this Maori image of Jesus with me to Zimbabwe to include in my series on dis-enculturing the gospel. Our series on Images of Christ reflects the bias of our own culture we are familiar with, regardless of our background...

This new Jesus appeared after Sept 11 among patriotic Americans!		The usual Western Kris Kristofferson image - brown hair, blue eyes, pale skin
Maori Christ walking on the water of Lake Rotorua - lakeside Anglican church truly magnificent artwork!	a Zimbabwe Jesus poster	The real Jesus! The most accurate image known from 1stC Galilean skulls!! (from Son of God TV series)

When of course, the Scriptures plainly tell us, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him" (Isa 53:2b). Who would follow a Saviour who looked like THAT today in out image-besotted religious world??? Fortunately, today, Jesus looks like none of these images, but like what John tried so hard to describe in Revelation 1!! Wow! Now, there's a Saviour we can follow!!! Try putting that on a window etching....

We have posted a cage-rattling transcript of a symposium Brian chaired on the subject, "the Corporatisation of the Church". The speaker, Graham Long, pastored a local Church of Christ for 10 years. Now you too can have your brains rattled by what he said (if you're game) by going to our Resources - other people's section. Enjoy!

Our car is schizophrenic... It has a Sydney Swans sticker on one side of the rear bumper, and a Geelong Cats one on the other. No, it's not that we've gone New Age (yin and yang, good (Swans) and evil (Geelong!), light and darkness, etc. So why mention it at all? Coz it gives me a lead in to an issue that I believe is becoming more and more critical. We're a sport-loving family (our church is too), enjoy a good meal out, and some diverse music (not all Christian - from Tchaikovsky to a bit of Dire Straits!).

But, but, but.... It goes through a grid first where it is passed through the Cross of Christ and His Word. If it survives the filtration process, it's OK with us! What's the point of saying this?

Let's get religious now.... The job of a priest in the OT was not only to act as a mediator for atonement, but they were to teach God's people how to discern between "the holy and the common" (the sacred and the profane). "Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean..." [Ezekiel 22:26]. "They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean" [Eze 44:23].

Whenever they failed to do this, the common / profane came creeping into the community of God's people, with horrible long-term consequences. They cursed themselves. In ch 42, God set a wall of separation around His Temple to exclude the common. This, in turn, leads to a description of the glory of God returning to the Temple in ch 43 - that He had earlier abandoned because of their corrupt practices..

Fail to train the next generation in this process of discernment, and you had big trouble for the community down the track...

Here's a quote from John Taylor, commenting on Psalm 99 - "what appears to be a threefold refrain sets the tone.... At the end of verses 3, 5 and 9 the reader is reminded that the Lord whom he is going up to Jerusalem to worship is holy. Clearly, this needed to be said in those days of Temple worship, just as it needs to be said today. We do not lightly trip into God's presence as if we are going to a place of entertainment. Take the children by all means. look forward to meeting friends and enjoying being together in God's house; sing heartily your praises and thank Him for his goodness to you over the past week, but never forget that he is a holy God."

Our youth group struggles, like many others, for a proper balance between "fun" and "serious stuff". It's the nature of young people to want good times. No problem there. But everything has its place. Jesus went right off at the placement of the 'common' "where it ought not to be"; it was where it was placed, rather than the nature of the activity itself, that caused Him to react. Ask yourself, how should we view such (now) commonplace activities as marketing "aids to worship" in our services? In some churches I have visited lately, you have to fight your way out the exit to get past the stalls with special deals on the books, tapes, videos, etc, by the church leadership and music people. Don’t get me wrong – I utilise a lot of Christian Resource materials myself, but won’t buy them if they are smothering worship times and facilities.

A practical illustration - some years ago, I took a busload of our youth to a Youth Alive concert in the (appropriately chosen) Entertainment Centre. The then National Leader (Mal Fletcher) was speaking. He used Jimi Hendrix as a role model, saying David would have played his stringed instrument like Hendrix. Fletcher lay on the stage and spun like Hendrix did mimicking his frantic guitar-playing (yeah - before he died choking in his own vomit after a heroin-crazed life). He finished by saying, "if you want Jesus to be your friend, RUN up to the front and accept Jesus as your Saviour". Some 300 kids rushed to the front to make Jesus their "Friend" at the end of his spiel. No call for repentance. Absolutely nothing of Christ's atoning sacrifice was mentioned.

That's what I mean by bringing the common / profane into the holy place. I have often wondered how many of those 300 went on to become discipled taking-up-their-cross-daily followers of Jesus.... Bring them in on one level, and see what happens when you try to switch later to another Jesus gospel - one that talks about separation, death to self, serving others, holiness to the Lord - people attracted by a certain kind of appeal will rarely adapt to such a major shift of emphasis.

Here's Hillsong's very-influential youth convention promo for 2002; a cross between a fading Elvis and a Native American shaman (a Canadian minister friend went right off when he looked at this with its - to him - blatant association with shaman occult). And, yeah! You'd have to be "fearless" to appear in public dressed up looking as loony as this!)....

Here it is, standing in the Holy Place, where the next generation will assume this is a valid, realistic indication of the God they are so enthusiastically singing about. The line between (Christian) entertainment (valid where it's "placed" correctly) and worship gets ever more blurred... Where's this going to take the church in another 10 years?

That's why I started with a footy sticker, because I know this can sound very preachy, self-righteous, and other-world (God hates fun) religion. It isn't. But we have to be careful about placement - what belongs where. No idols in the heart, no 'common' in the holy place.

Let’s keep the filter of the Word operative over all we say and do, personally and in ministry…

Current Issues - Brian's pulpit bashing section...